Come as you are...but don't stay there.
Waypoints • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 71 viewsNotes
Transcript
Big idea: Following Jesus is a lifelong trajectory of faith and the proof that that faith is real is in the fruit it produces.
Waypoints reminder...
Some days are scary serious bit...
Difficult conversation with a friend that might cost you your friendship but save their life.
Jesus is starting his conclusion...
“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.
“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Every person in the world is on one of these two paths headed towards one of two gates.
This is why I’ve entitled this sermon series waypoints. It signifies a journey that every single person is on. Here is what we’ve seen over the course of this series:
The road that leads to life isn’t wide enough for your bad and self-serving attitude
Its not wide enough for a bad attitude towards people.
This road isn’t wide enough for free agent christians who believe they can live out their faith outside of a covenant community of believers. This isn’t just about you living out a personal faith.
This road isn’t wide enough for your anger towards others. Anger that, at its roots, is the same as murder in the eyes of God.
This road isn’t wide enough for your lust. Lust that, at its roots, is the same as adultery in the eyes of God.
This road isn’t wide enough for your lack of generosity.
This road isn’t wide enough for your bad motives.
This road isn’t wide enough for you and the lies you tell.
This road isn’t wide enough for your judgmental attitude...
The good news, is that this road also isn’t wide enough for your good works either.
Do waypoints and being carried by Jesus (gospel bit).
Do the opposite is also true bit. Talk about how very few people care to follow Jesus down the road he has given us in the Sermon on the Mount.
Heaven and Hell are not termination points. Heaven and Hell are a continuation of a trajectory.
Jesus has spent three straight chapters talking about how we live our lives in the here and now but is concluding with some very eternal realities that we all must grapple with.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Jesus is going to show us that it is entirely possible to think you are on a particular path but you are We see a couple of things from this warning:
You need to be incredibly careful who you allow to have access to speak into your heart and soul about spiritual matters.
Invite them to look at my notes and bring a Bible each week.
3 terms for deceptive teachers in the Bible
Heretic
Apostate
False Prophet/Teacher
They have added something to the Gospel. The Problem is
Jesus + Nothing = Everything
Do seesaw illustration that Jesus balances perfectly...
We all are prone to one of two things. We are either bent towards legalism or we are prone to grace abuse.
Legalism weaponizes the law...
Explain this…Jesus loves you so he says come as you are (explain how the legalist misses this). Jesus also loves you enough to not leave you where you are (explain how the grace abuser misses this).
Jesus loves you so much that he says come as you are but He loves you enough to not leave you where you are at.
Jesus tells us not only how we can spot the false teachers but also how we can know which road we are on. Here is what he says:
“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?
“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
“So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Here at The Outpost Church, we say:
Our mission is to help others ORIENT their lives to Jesus and ENGAGE with others on the journey so that they can live a life of IMPACT.
Explain all of these: Orient, Engage, and Impact.
There isn’t room for spectators when following Jesus.
But fruit or impact, is not just about what you do. Sure, what you do is important but Jesus has been consistently showing us through the Sermon on the Mount that he is looking for something much deeper.
Jesus has been consistently driving at these heart level issues. The scary thing that we are going to see in a moment is that we can have fruit that looks good on the outside, but if that fruit isn’t connected to genuine heart transformation through the Gospel it is still just bad fruit.
There is no such thing as life transformation without heart transformation.
The Apostle Paul actually talks about all of this in Galatians chapter five. Paul addresses the false teachings of legalism and grace abuse. I encourage you to read through Galatians chapter five this week on your own to further explore this topic. In connection with the conversation around false teachers, Paul also defines what real good fruit looks like. Here is what he says:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
The problem is that we can manufacture fake fruit and convince ourselves we are good.
We can fake our love for other people and yet harbor anger, resentment, unforgiveness, and a judgmental attitude under the surface. Said another way, we can appear to have good fruit towars our neighbor but fail to be loving, patient, kind, good, gentle or self controlled under the surface.
We can toss a few dollars in the offering box or even give a 20 to the homeless family at the stop light and still fail to be truly generous.
We can show up to church and sing along with the songs and convince everyone else…and even our own selves that we are following after Jesus and meanwhile our hearts are far from him.
We can have the appearance or relationships and yet we have settled for something so shallow that there is no transformative power because we aren’t being disciples nor are we making disciples.
We can have passion and fervor around political, social, and moral issues and yet be given over to legalism so completely that we have missed the Gospel entirely.
And so we are led to what is hands down the scariest words of Jesus in the entire Bible:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
“Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Explain why this is so scary… there are people who can be around the the teachings of Jesus and even be engage in a community of Jesus followers to some degree but who have missed what it means to actually be a follower of Jesus.
“We” Bit…people who are around it and yet have missed it… its the person who thinks their life is dependent on the law and legalism or its the person who has missed the part about life transformation having to have taken place in them.
A person on a trajectory towards life is someone who lives by the waypoints Jesus has laid out in the Sermon on the mount. It isn’t that we don’t get side-tracked A life headed towards destruction is one that has torn up the map and forsaken the waypoints and has chosen to chart their own path.
Jesus doesn’t throw people into hell bit… its a trajectory and a decision that He honors.
I’m convinced that we’ve made the calling to follow Jesus too easy.
Give the Gospel =
Come as you are…
broken and in full realization of the gravity of your sin
Come and see…
Experience the goodness of Jesus primarily experienced in relationships with those who have chosen to follow Him.
Come follow me…
Jesus leads us into new life, new patterns of thought, and new behaviors through a heart transformed by the Gospel.
Come and live…
Jesus has not called us to be free agent Christians but has called us to live in deep relationships with other followers of Jesus so that we can grow in maturity and effectiveness.
Come and die…
Crucified with Christ every single day. This is an every single day activity where we go back to the gospel and realize that if there is any hope for us…any hope for a change in our hearts, live, relationships, attitudes, generosity, anger, anxiety, or motives, that it has to be Jesus that is in control. And so we take those things that are inconsistent with how he has called us to live and we put them to death. And that is an incredibly painful exercise because we desperately want to be in control of our lives and yet the outcome of that is always sin, broken relationships, and death.
And yet we’ve settled for less...
We’ve settled for come, sit, and listen. We are satisfied with attendance and service and a sort of pseudo community we’ve called church meanwhile Jesus has called us to crucify ourselves for the sake of following after him.
Let me synthesize all of this...do the two circles on the board.
Are you just a spectator when it comes to following Jesus?
Invitation:
Follow Jesus
Sign up for our Next Steps class...
